I grew up in Southern California, and so I’m pretty picky about Mexican food. I wanted authentic, not Americanized. It matters whether the corn tamales are fresh and the right kinds of cheese are used. The quality of the jalapenos. The variety of the salsas. And especially the way the meats are seasoned and cooked.
It seems like the farther I get away from Mexico, the more unreliable the Mexican food becomes (although I must admit, I did once have a great Mexican meal at a hotel in Sweden!) Anyway, Vancouver is pretty far from Mexico. And so the results are pretty dicey at a lot of the Mexican places around here.
But Mi Casa really blew us away.
It’s a little hard to find, it’s just a door with stairs going up. But once you’re up there, it’s quite, spacious, with picture windows lining two walls.
I was pretty sure things were going to go well when I got my Margarita. None of that fake Margarita flavored syrup here, just real lime juice and a generous two ounces of tequila and a rim half salted without my having to ask.
Then the enormous pile of nachos showed up, thoughtfully layered and covered in the right kind of cheese. Plentiful pickled jalapenos with just the right spice level. A mound of delicious guacamole. And an incredible chorizo. I’ve never even been much of a fan of chorizo, and if I’d known it was going to be on there, I’d probably have had them leave it off, but it really made the dish. It was complex and smoky, and its flavors infused everything. Honestly, these were the best nachos I’ve ever had anywhere.
I also had the lunch special, which was two tacos. I chose pastor and cochinita pabil. Pastor is a longtime favorite of mine, and this was prepared in a very traditional way. It was excellent, but the cochinita pabil was even better. Succulent and plentiful. Some of the best I’ve had.
My wife had two tamales with chicken filling. You could tell they were homemade with perfectly done cornmeal wrappers and served on corn husks.
Service was friendly, and the server verified our suspicion that the owners were from Mexico City. I’ve dined in hundreds of Mexican restaurants, but I have to say this was the biggest surprise and was among the very top of all that I’ve been to. It really exceeded our expectations and will become a regular on our rotation.
